Machine for cutting the pile of fabrics.



No. 790,577. PATENTED MAY 23, 1905. w. G'. M. KEIGHLEY & H. NETHERWOOD. MACHINE FOR CUTTING THE PILEIIOF FABRICS.

APPLIOA'HOI FILED 3'11. 13, 1905.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

No. 790,577.- PATENTED MAY 23, 1905.

W. G. M. KEIGHLEY & H. NETHERWOOD.

MACHINE FOR CUTTING THE FILE 0F FABRICS.

APPLICATION rlLgn'nx. 1a, 1905.

' z sums-sum a.

v UNITED STATES Patented May 23, 1905 PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM G. M. KEIGHLEY AND HARRY NETHERVVOOD, OF HUDDERS- FIELD, ENGLAND, ASSIGNORS TO THE COTTON CORD AND VELVET CUTTING MACHINE COMPANY, LIMITED, OF HUDDERSFIELD, ENG- LAND.

MACHINE FOR CUTTING THE FILE OF FABRICS- SPEGIFIGATION, forming part of Letters Patent No. 790,577, dated May 23, 1905.

Application filed January 13, 1905. Serial No. 240,879.

To aZZ whom, it may concern;

Be it known that we, 'WILLIAM' GEORGE MAOGREGOR KEIGHLEY and HARRY NETHER- WOOD, subjects of King Edward VII of Great Britain, residing at Huddersfield, in the county of York, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Cutting the Pile of Woolen, Cotton, Velvet, or Like Corded Fabrics, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference to machines for cutting cotton cords and velvets or like corded pile fabrics, and particularly to the mechanism for controlling the card-covered feedroller to which the fabric is first conducted on entering the machine and with the periphery of which it is brought into full contact by suitably disposed carrier or guide rollers, such a machine forming the subject-matter of United States Patent No. 462,856.

- The fabric to be cut is, as is well known to those skilled in the art, made endless in order that it may be traversed through the machine the requisite number of times to admit of each race being cut, and it is conducted- The card-covered roller is driven by the frictional contact of the fabric, which'is drawn through the machine by the positively-driven tension-roller. By a belt, cord, or strap connection between the tension-roller or an adjacent driven shaft and a pulley mounted loosely on the axis of the card-covered feedroller and rotatively engaged therewith in the forward direction of its motion by a catch on the pulley taking into a tooth on a ratchetwheel fast on the card-covered roller-shaft the speed of the card-covered roller is retarded to approximately one-half that of the ten sion-roller in order that the fabric may be maintained at a suitable tension between the two rollers.

In the practical working of the machine We have found that in the event of the fabric being held back through any cause as it travels from the delivery to the feeding end of the machine, as frequently happens, it retards or slightly holds back the card-covered feedroller While the driven pulley advances and carries the catch forward, it may be half a tooth or more, whereby on the fabric being released or freeing itself the pull of the tension-roller causes the card-covered feed-roller to suddenly start forward again until the catch carried by the pulley engages with a tooth of the ratchet-wheel, the result of this uncontrolled forward impulse being that the portion of fabric lying between the card-covered'roller and the tension-roller receives a little slack, and the proper tension of the fabric where the knife or knives operate is-thus destroyed and renders same liable to make holes or slips.

The object of our invention is, therefore, to provide a retarding device for the feed roller and in connection therewith means for preventing further retardation of the feed-roller due to a pull on the cloth. In the particular embodiment of the invention such means is applied to prevent disconnection between the feed-roller and the brake or retarding drive 7 elevation of the cutting end of a single-knife cotton cord 'or velvet cutting machine, such as shown and described in the United States Patent before referred to and embodying our improvements. Fig. 2 is aplan of Fig.1, showing the near side of the machine only. Fig. 3 is asimilar plan view to Fig. 2, but showing a'four knife machine-with the additional driverequired when a plurality-of knives are employed. Fig. 4 is an enlarged longitudinal section taken on line 1 2, Fig. 2, showing one embodiment of our-invention; and Fig. 5 isa similar longitudinal section taken on line 3 4, Fig. 3, showing a modified and preferred arrangement of'ourimprovements.

1n the accompanying drawings, and refer ring first to Figs. 1, 2, and 4, a is the machineside or frame; 6-, the feed-roller, which obviously: may be provided with any usual nonslipping surface or be card-covered, as usual;

0, the backrail; d, the tension-roller; 0, the

endless fabric to be cut, which is guided to and around the card-covered roller 6 by guiderollers f'f, then guided by roller f to the back. rail '0, from whence it passes to the tension-roller d, the knife or knives (not shown) operatingbetween said roller and the back rail 0 to -cut the pile, the fabric traveling'forward around the rollers-g g g" and cuttling itself onto a scray under the machine, from which scray it passes again to the feeding end of themachine, all in the'usual way and as set forth in the patent'above mentioned.

The fabric is drawn through the machine by'the driven tensionroller (Z and tends to drivethe card-covered feed-roller b'by the-- frictional contact of the fabric therewith; but

by a strapor belt li, passing around a pulley h on the tension-roller shaft d and around a pulleye', .loose'on the axis 6 of the card-roller I), but adapted to be positively engaged rota-- tiv'ely with the shaft-5 in aforward direction by a pawl carried by the pulley i, meshing with theteeth of the ratchetwheel b", fast'on the shaftt-Qthe speed of the card covered roller is retarded to approximately one-half that of the' tension-rol-ler in order'to maintainthe fabric ata suitable tension between the two rollers.

Any obstruction to the free traverse of the endless fabric to the-card-roller b which will tend to momentarily hold or retard the speed of such roller belowthe normal causes the pawl fin the continued forward movement of the drivenpulley to move out-of mesh with the tooth of the ratchet-wheel b with which lt-has been engaged and advance, it may be, half a tooth or more. On the fabric being:

released or freeing itself the pull of the tension-roller gives-the card-roller, which is for the moment uncontrolled, a sudden start for ling by the beltior strap ii. fabric travelingbetween the card-roller I) and locked rotatively with the driven pulley in a forward direction and its motion retarded.

The result of the uncontrolled forward impulse of the card-covered roller causes the fabric lying between said roller and the tension-roller to be slackened a little, whereby the knife or knives is or are liable to make holesor slips therein.

To avoid'the slackening'of the fabric between the card-roller b and the tension-roller (Z under circumstances such as above named, it is necessary that while the connection between the cone-pulley and the card-roller should remain as before supplementary means shou'ldbe provided for retaining a positive control of1the-card-roller and preventing a momentarily quicker rotation thereof than the speed of the retardingcone-pulley drive.

e-will now describe the supplementary means we have devisedfor retaining an approximately positive control of the card-roller;

Referring iirst to Figs. 1, 2, and 4, in which one form of'our improvements is shown, A: is acircular-plate or disk provided with a hub in, through which isscrewed a set-screw Zr" to secure the plate or disk tothe hub 170i the driven pulley Against the face of the disk 7c abuts'aleather washer 02)., passed loosely over the end of the card-roller shaft 6'. In the outer'end of theshaft 6' is cut akeyway toreceivea-spline orkey in the hub of a second disk or plate a, mounted on-the shaft/i on the outer side of the-washer m, the spline securing the disk rotatively to the shaft, but permitting it tomove longitudinally thereon. The plateor disk'n is held in engagement with the washer m bya strong spring 0 encircling the shaft Z/and confined between said disk and a washer p, loosely mounted on the shaft 1) and secured thereon by nut p, screwed onto the end of the shaft 6. The tension ofthe spring can be increased-by screwing the nut p farther onto theshaft 6'. The movable disk a is forced along. with the leather ring or washer-m into engagement with i thedisk 7a,. fast on .thehub'of the pulley 2' and is maintained in frictional driving-contact therewith by the confined spring 0 to give a friction drive or'coupling between the pulley i and the card-roller shaft 5. It will thus be manifest thatshould the fabric a be caught or'temporarily held on itsv way to the card-roller I) the friction coupling or connection between the card-roller shaft 6 and the pulley v. or brake-drive will overcome the resistance by remaining'in engagement in a forward direction, and thus avoid the sudden start or forward impulse when the conditions become normal again, the drag on the cloth being taken up through the friction drive or-coup- The portion of tension-roller d is-thus kept taut and at the required tensionforthe proper operation of the cutting knife or knives.

In the preferred embodiment of our invention shown at Fig. the arrangement of the parts is simply the reverse of the arrangement described with reference to Fig. 4, the movable disk or. being in this instance secured rotatively byspline on the hub 17 of the conepulley '5 and free to move laterally thereon and forced against the washer m to maintain the latter in frictional contact with the disk secured by set-screw-to the shaft 6 by means of the strong spring 0', confined between the disk 01/ and a nut r, screwed onto the externally-screwed part 6' of the hub c" of the cone-pulley. The nut r is adjustable to vary the tension of the spring and is held in its adjusted position by a lock-nut 0*.

The cone-pulleys shown in Figs. 4 and 5 are those employed in a single-knife machine and a four-knife machine, respectively, as will be.

obvious to those skilled in the art, and our invention is applied to both constructions of pulley precisely in the same way irrespective of any difference of construction in the pulley itself.

We prefer the frictional coupling device illustrated at Fig. 5 for the reason that the pulley can be supplied along with the frictioncoupling to existing machines without having to remove the shaft 6 from the machine, whereas in the arrangement illustrated at Fig. 4; a keyway must be cut in the shaft 6 and a screw-thread chased on the end of said shaft, which entails unnecessary labor and expense.

It will be understood that the details of construction of our improvements may be varied, if desired, and that in place of the disks shown conical friction-disks may be used.

Having thus described our invention, what We claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a cotton cord or pile cutting machine, a feed-roller to which the fabric to be cut is delivered, a driven tension-roller for drawing the fabric through the machine and thereby operating the feed-roller,- a positively-driven retarding device for retarding the rotation of the feed-roller due to the movement of the cloth, and means for preventing further retardation of the feed-roller due to the pull of the cloth thereon.

2. In 'a cotton cord or pile cutting machine, a feed-roller to which the fabric to be cut is delivered, a driven tension-roller for drawing the fabric through the machine andthereby operating the feed-roller, a positively-driven retarding device having operative engagement with said feed-roller when rotating in a forward direction, and a friction-clutch connecting the retarding device to said feed-rollerto prevent further'retardation of-said feedroller due to the pull of the cloth thereon.

3. In a cotton cord or pile cutting machine, a feed-roller to which the fabric to becut is delivered, a'driven tension-roller for drawing the fabric through the machine and operating the feed-roller by the drag of the fabric thereover, a positively-driven retarding device comprising a pulley loosely mounted on the feed-roller shaft, a pawl-and-ratchet connection between the said pulley and said shaft for transmitting the retarding action of said. pulley to the feed-roller, and means for preventing disengagement of the pawl and ratchet and consequent further retardation of the feed-roller due to the backward pull of the cloth.

4. In a cotton cord or pile cutting machine, a shaft. a feed-roller thereon, towhich the fabric to be cut is delivered, a driven tensionroller for drawing the fabric through the machine and thereby operating or turning the feed-roller, a driven retarding device comprising a pulley mounted on the shaft of the feed-roller, a ratchet-and-pawl connection be- :tween the said pulley and shaft for transmitting the retarding action of said pulley to said shaft and feed-roller, and a friction-clutch connection between the said shaft and pulley for preventing disengagement of the ratchet and pawl and consequent further retardation of .the feed-roller due to the backward pull of the cloth.

5. In a cotton cord or pile cutting machine, a shaft, a card covered feed-roller loosely mounted thereon, a fixed rail, a driven tension-roller for drawing the fabric through the machine and thereby operating to turn the card -covered feed -roller, a pulley loosely mounted on the feed-roller shaft and provided with a catch or pawl, a ratchet-wheel fixedly mounted on the feed-roller shaft and engaged by said pawl or catch, means for driving said pulley to retard the rotation of the feed-roller,

and a friction-clutch connection between the chine and thereby operating to turn the feedroller, a driven retarding device for retarding ITO the rotationof the feed-roller due to the.

movement of the cloth, and means for preventing further retardation of the feed-roller due to the backward pull of the cloth, said means comprising a pair of friction-disks, one being mounted on the feed-roller shaft and the other connected to the'driven retarding device. a

In testimony whereof we aflix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM G. M. KEIGHLEY. HARRY NETHERWOOD. Witnesses:

EDWARD E. 001), THOMAS H. BARRON. 

